


The First Of Many

by J_E_McCormick



Series: Hidden Lore [2]
Category: Five Nights at Freddy's
Genre: Gen, Hidden Lore series, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-29
Updated: 2015-12-29
Packaged: 2018-05-10 05:29:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5572669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_E_McCormick/pseuds/J_E_McCormick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fred feels guilt gnawing at his stomach, almost physically painful. He had stood and talked to that woman while Peter looked for the child he had kidnapped and hidden, knowing where he was but acting as if he was doing his best to locate him. That boy had been in god-knows what state, while his mother was just a few hundred feet away, worried for him. And then Fred had helped cover up his murder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Of Many

**Author's Note:**

> I decided I would write more for this. I really do love the Hidden Lore series, and I'm really enjoying exploring the characters.
> 
> Today, the story of how Fred discovers Peter's murderous nature and how he comes to help him cover up his crimes.
> 
> Note: I gave Springtrap the in-universe name of Springstep because it sounds vaguely like something you might call a rabbit character. I'm afraid I couldn't think of anything better.

It’s the end of a long day – there have been three birthday parties and a full house almost all day, and Fred is glad to finally be closing up. He loves his restaurant and he loves working there, he really does, but there’s only so much time one can spend in a Fredbear suit before getting tired and wanting nothing more than to put their feet up at home and watch TV for a while. And Fred has definitely had more time in the suit than that today.

When Fred comes out of the office, shrugging on his coat and trying to lock his office at the same time, he sees Peter talking to a woman at the front door.

“-sorry Ma’am, but we’re closing up now and I can’t let you in…” Peter is saying.

“Please, just let me look for my son. He must be inside somewhere, he was off playing in the arcade; maybe he hid in there.”

“Ma’am, we make sure everyone leaves the arcade at closing time. We always ensure everyone is out before we start to close up.” Peter is obviously trying to stay patient with the woman, using the firm, calm tone of an employee trying to placate a customer.

“What’s the problem here, Peter?” Fred asks, walking up to the two of them. Peter glances back at him, but before he can say anything the woman cuts in.

“My son isn’t with me, he must still be inside. If he’s not in the arcade maybe he wandered off, to the bathrooms or something, but he’s not here with me so he must be in there.” Her voice is pleading, a little desperate. Peter sighs.

“If you’d like, Fred, I’ll go and check out the bathrooms, make sure he’s not hiding in there.” He offers. He sounds like he doesn’t believe he’ll find the kid, and Fred is inclined to believe that he won’t – Peter is always thorough when making sure everyone clears out. Still, the woman is obviously worried, and he doesn’t want to risk ruining their image by refusing to help her.

“Yeah, if you could, Peter.” Fred agrees. Peter nods, and heads off in the direction of the bathrooms. Fred watches him go for a moment before turning back to the mother.

“I’m really sorry this has happened, I hope we find him. It can get pretty chaotic here at closing time, we have a lot of parents worried they’ve lost their kids.” He tells her. She nods, giving him a small, strained smile.

“My Timothy absolutely loves this place. He always complains when we have to leave, I basically have to drag him out.” She says. “I called to him that it was time to leave, but I think he’s hidden in there, hoping to stay a bit longer. Probably wants a bit of time with Fredbear and Springstep without the other kids.”

Fred chuckles. Kids are always crowding around the suits – trying to hug their legs if he and Peter are wearing them to walk around the diner, crowding right at the edge of the stage if they’re in animatronic mode. He loves seeing kids looking up at the suits like they’re magic, loves hearing them cheer when they start talking and sing along with their songs. He’s proud of his business and how beloved it has become.

“Well, I’m glad he likes the place, Ma’am.”

Peter reappears from the corridor where the bathrooms are, no child in tow. He goes over to the arcade, and checks around in there as well, before walking back over to them.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, he’s not in here. I’ve looked everywhere.” He says, voice calm and steady. The woman’s expression drops again, wringing her hands together worriedly. “Maybe he went with one of his friends. You know kids – they’re always wandering off.”

“Yes, I suppose that might have happened…” The woman sighs, nodding reluctantly. “Thank you for looking.”

“It’s no trouble Ma’am. I’m sorry we couldn’t help.” Fred says, smiling apologetically at her. She nods again and turns to go and look for her son. Fred sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I hope she finds him alright. We really don’t need another kid to have gone missing here.” He mutters to Peter.

“I’m sure she will, Fred.” Peter assures him, still watching the woman walk away down the street. Fred nods.

“Well, I was about to head off – you’re fine closing up like usual, right?” He says. Peter nods, finally shifting to look at Fred.

“Yeah, of course.” Peter says. “I just need to clean the place and then I’ll lock it up for the evening.”

“Alright. Well, goodnight Peter.”

“Good night, Fred.”

\--x--

Fred is almost halfway home before he looks at his wrist and realises he’s left his watch back at the diner. He swears under his breath, briefly weighing the options before deciding he might as well go back – Peter will probably still be there finishing up, and if he leaves it until tomorrow he might forget it’s lost. He turns on his heels and walks back, hands shoved into his pockets to protect them from the chill of the night air.

The door is locked, but there are still lights on inside the diner, so Peter must still be there. Fred steps in and goes to his office, reckoning that’s probably the most likely place for him to have left it. No amount of searching his desk turns anything up though, and he sighs and looks around as he tries to think of where he might have lost it.

 _The back room, with the suits. Probably took it off when I was putting on the Fredbear suit and left it in there._ He thinks to himself. With the intricacy of the suits, there wasn’t really room to wear a watch or a tie or anything other than a shirt and trousers, so he often removes his watch.

He goes around to the corridor, briefly wondering where Peter is – he hasn’t seen him yet. He tries the door to the back room, but finds it locked.

From inside, he hears a quiet curse, and the sound of movement.

“Peter? Is that you?” He frowns, pulling out the key to the back room. “What’re you doing in here with the door…. locked…” Fred trails off as he unlocks the door and opens it, allowing him a perfect view of what, exactly, Peter is doing in the back room with the door locked.

The boy is dead, or at least, Fred thinks he is from the amount of blood. There are cuts all over his body, some deep gashes that show flesh and bone, others lighter – for no purpose other than to cause pain. There is purple bruising all the way around his neck. Fred can see what he thinks are two stab wounds through the boy’s chest. It’s hard to tell through the blood-soaked shirt.

Peter is knelt down beside him, holding the boy in his arms – one hand cradles his head, the other rests over his chest. That hand also holds a knife. Peter is turned towards Fred, his expression dark; his eyes are narrowed in a fierce glare, his teeth bared in a snarl. He looks murderous, and Fred feels his heart skip a beat with fear as he realises Peter _is_ murderous, is perfectly capable of murder, is in the middle of _murdering a small child_ and is probably considering Fred for his next victim.

Fred has known there’s something off about Peter for a while – it isn’t hard to tell. Especially after the biting incident, he’s certainly known that Peter is no saint. Somehow, though, finding out he’s a killer is still a shock.

Suddenly Peter is on his feet, the boy’s body dropped unceremoniously from his grip. There’s a thud as his head hits the floor, and Fred cringes at the callous, careless action. He only has a moment to think about that, though, before he realises Peter is striding towards him, and he scrambles to get away from him.

He ends up backed against a wall and he can’t help but let out a whimper of “Oh, Jesus…”

Peter looms over him, his inches of height above Fred making him easily intimidating. His expression is still furious, full of rage, and it’s made all the more frightening by the fact that he’s usually so composed and calm. This is the first time Fred has seen him look more than slightly irritated or quietly pleased, and it is the most terrifying thing he has ever seen.

“What’re you doing here?” Peter growls.

“I-I was looking for my watch, I…” Fred shakes himself a little. “What are _you_ doing, Peter? What the hell have you done?”

Peter makes a low noise of irritation and places his knife at Fred’s side. Fred sucks in a sharp, scared breath and freezes as still as he can.

“That doesn’t matter.” Peter tells him.

“Like hell it doesn’t matter! Peter, this could ruin the business, you know- you know we had problems after that incident with the other kid! What on earth will happen if this gets out-”

“It won’t.” Peter’s tone is firm, fierce, threatening. “Just like that other incident won’t.”

“Peter, you’ve killed a _child_ -”

“If you don’t shut your mouth I’ll kill you as well.” Peter barks, and Fred flinches and goes still. “Now. You won’t say anything about this to anyone. If you do, your business goes down the drain, and I’ll tell the police all about the other kid. You’ll get thrown in prison too, and even when you get out, you won’t be able to open up Fredbear’s again.”

Fred stares at Peter, open-mouthed and in shock. The more he thinks about it, the more he realises it’s true – the suits are his, the accident with the kid will be blamed on him; he let Peter talk him into hiding the body and agreed to lie about what happened; he bleached the blood out of Fredbear’s fur with his own hands. If the truth ever came out, he’d be completely ruined.

“You can’t do this again, Peter… People will notice, they’ll stop coming…” Fred manages weakly.

“They won’t. I’ll be careful.” Peter tells him, and Fred feels something in his stomach drop sickeningly as he realises Peter is planning to keep killing children at his restaurant.

“Peter…”

“Look, I’ve already helped you out once.” Peter says. “It’s your turn to help me. You keep this between us, and everything will turn out fine. We’ve been doing fine so far, and we’ll keep doing fine. We’re in this together, right?”

Fred is silent again for a long time – he stares at Peter and Peter stares right back, his expression back to being carefully controlled. Looking at him now, the expression looks like a mask.

It’s just like the last time. Except for the part where it’s totally different, the part where this is no accident, no one-off incident. But really even then, it’s not that dissimilar…. He has the same choice. Cover up a death, lie through his teeth and live with the crime he’s committing, or destroy his business, his livelihood, probably his entire life. He’s already done this once before. How different is it really, to cover up a murder? A violent crime, instead of a violent accident?

And what happens if he reports it? Peter is arrested, stopped from killing again, yes, but Fred will be arrested too. He doesn’t think he could survive prison. Either another inmate would kill him, or he’d kill himself. Even if he did survive, what would he do? He couldn’t start up another business, his chances of being hired by anyone would be next to nothing – he’d end up on the streets, freezing and starving.

If he sticks by Peter, his business is safe. He is safe – he thinks, at least. He’ll be able to survive this like he did the last incident, by shoving it to the back of his mind and focusing on the diner, on profits and suit repairs, on arranging birthday parties and watching the kids smile and laugh as they listen to Fredbear and Springstep sing their songs. By distracting himself at home with books and paperwork and Peter.

Peter had helped him before. Peter would keep helping him, would keep working at the diner, would keep quiet, would help him cover everything up and make sure the diner ran like normal. And maybe he could help Peter too – give him a second chance. After all, prison just made everything worse, didn’t it? Prison never helped anyone. Prison never rehabilitated a child killer, just locked them up long enough to make them angry and more dangerous.

And he’d rather have Peter on his side than against him.

“Right.” He says, just like last time.

Peter nods. “Good.” He murmurs, stepping back. The knife is taken away from Fred’s side and he shivers a little at the ghostly feeling of where it was pressed. He’s still tense, his heart hammering in his chest even though Peter seems to have relaxed and backed off.

“You can go. I’ll take care of everything from here.” Peter tells him, not looking up at him as he wipes the blade of his knife on his shirt – it’s not his uniform, Fred realises, so he must have changed at some point. “And remember – this stays between us.”

This time Peter does look up, moving only his eyes, looking up at Fred with a sharp, piercing gaze. Fred is fairly certain he can feel his pulse quicken at the warning, at the danger in that gaze. He swallows thickly and nods, not sure he can force out words without his voice trembling. For a moment he stands there, frozen, as if he’s waiting for a dismissal. Peter simply doesn’t pay attention to him, stashing away his knife and then going back through to the back room, closing the door behind him.

Fred hurries out of the diner and towards home, completely forgetting about retrieving his watch.

\--x--

It takes a week for the story to show up in the newspaper. The name and a photo of the kid are printed, giving Fred a name to the body he knows has been secreted away and hidden somewhere.

Although the story mentions the diner as the last place the boy had been spotted, there were no accusations directed at them. The mother had told the newspaper how the employees had checked the restaurant for her son, how they had been ever so helpful and kind. She tells the paper that she thinks her son may have left ahead of her with some of his friends, and that perhaps he had been snatched up on his way home. They reported that there were no leads and no witnesses, but that an investigation was still ongoing.

Fred feels guilt gnawing at his stomach, almost physically painful. He had stood and talked to that woman while Peter looked for the child he had kidnapped and hidden, knowing where he was but acting as if he was doing his best to locate him. That boy had been in god-knows what state, while his mother was just a few hundred feet away, worried for him. And then Fred had helped cover up his murder.

He burns the newspaper, unable to bear having it around the house. He opens up the diner as normal. He greets the crowds of children, dresses up in the Fredbear suit to wish a little girl happy birthday. He says hello to Peter as normal, and Peter gives him that small, tempered smile he always does, and Fred has to ignore the shudder that runs down his spine as he thinks of his employee and friend spattered with blood and glaring at him with pure rage.

No-one asks questions about the boy’s disappearance. There’s no change in their customer flow or their profits. Apart from a few murmurs between mothers, there’s no rumours.

Fredbear’s Family Diner runs as normal and Fred does his best not to think on the whole thing at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest fic I have written in months, oh my goodness. I am so proud of the length of this, and I personally quite like how it turned out, even if some bits and pieces were a bit difficult and needed loads of checking and editing.
> 
> As always, any and all feedback is appreciated!! Comments let me know what I do well and what I can improve, and I am always looking to improve.


End file.
